Cost Benefit Analysis of Participatory Natural Resource Management: A study of watershed development initiative in Indian village

Following the Hanumanth Rao committee report Government of India initiated Watershed Development Programmes (WDPs) to improve and sustain productivity of the semiarid regions of the country at higher level. The aim of such initiatives are also to fulfill the needs of rural communities for food, fuel, fodder, and timber as majority of rural people are depending on the natural resource for their livelihood. WDPs are being given importance in the development plans for India and by donor agencies as they promote sustainable use of natural resources and improve the rural economy of India. This paper presents a social cost-benefit appraisal of a watershed development project in Rajasthan, India. The analysis has been done by the primary data collected from the Bichhiwada village and using Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) and sensitivity analyses. The results show that if expected full benefits are realized, the benefits derived from the watershed project are quite high. The findings of this study suggest that watershed development projects initiated to improve the economy and ecology of India's dry and semiarid regions are economically viable and socially desirable.